Hartlepool GP to appear on Panorama after calling Stockton A&E a ‘sinking ship’

Published:17:30Sunday 16 March 2014Updated:12:21Monday 17 March 2014

A Hartlepool GP is set to appear on BBC show Panorama after calling Stockton A&E a ‘sinking ship’.

Town doctor Alex Muirhead, who works at Bankhouse Surgery, in the One Life Centre building in Park Road, Hartlepool, is expected to feature on BBC’s Panorama show on Monday called A Week in A&E: Condition Critical?

The programme, on BBC1 at 8.30pm, will look at conditions in hospital accident and emergency departments.

The former accident and emergency consultant, who worked at the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, before leaving to become a GP in December last year, tells the programme: “Accident and emergency is a sinking ship and, unless things change dramatically, it will sink because it’s not a popular place to work now.”

Alan Foster, chief executive of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, also appears on the programme on which he talks about staff targets, saying: “Behind every target is a patient.

“Patients come first. We don’t want people to wait four hours in accident and emergency.

“If you or I were going to the accident and emergency department, we’d want to be seen quickly so although we have that target, it’s not the be-all and end-all.” The documentary makers spent a week filming at the North Tees.